Solution of Chapter 2. People as Resource (NCERT - Economics Book)

Looking at the photograph given below can you explain how a doctor, teacher, engineer and a tailor are an asset to the economy?

Read the following passages and answer the questions that follow:

Story of Sakal

There were two friends named Vilas and Sakal. They both lived in the same village named Semapur. Sakal was twelve years old boy and his mother Sheela looked after domestic works. His father name was Buta Chaudhary, who worked in an agricultural field. Sakal used to help his mother in domestic works and besides helping his mother he looked after his younger siblings Jeetu and Seetu. His uncle had passed matriculation but he had no job he sat idle at home. So Sakal’s mother and father wanted him to study very carefully. They forced him to join the school in the village and he joined. As per his parents’ wish he started studying and completed his higher secondary examination, after this his father persuaded him to continue his studies. He applied for a loan for Sakal’s study in computer. He was very hardworking and interested in studies from the very beginning. So as his higher secondary examination he completed his vocational course and got a job in a private firm. He designed new kind of softwares which helped him to increase the sale of the firm. He was appreciated by his boss all the time and got promotion.

Story of Vilas

Vilas was a boy of eleven years living in the same village as Sakal. His father was a fisherman. Suddenly, his father passed away when Vilas was only two years old. After his father’s death his mother Geeta started selling fish to earn and to feed the family. She bought fish from the landowner’s pond and sold it in the nearby mandi, by which she could earn only Rs. 20 to 30 a day. Vilas became a patient of arthritis and his mother could not afford to take him to a doctor because of their poverty. Because of being the patient he could not go to school and was not interested in studied as his friend Sakal was. He used to help his mother in cooking and also looked after his younger brother Mohan. One day his mother fell ill and there was no one to look after her, there was no one to support them. So in this situation Vilas was forced to sell fish in the same village as his parents did. Like his mother and father he earned very little money.

Do you notice any difference between the two friends? What are these?

Study the graph and answer the following questions:

1. Has the literacy rates of the population increased since 1951?

2. In which year India has the highest literacy rates?

3. Why literacy rate is high among the males of India?

4. Why are women less educated than men?

5. How would you calculate literacy rate in India?

6. What is your projection about India's literacy rate in 2010?

Discuss this table in the classroom and answer the following questions:

Number of Institutions of Higher Education, Enrolment and Faculty

Source: UGC Annual Report 1996-97 and 1998-99 and Selected Educational Statistics, Ministry of HRD.

1. Is the increase in number of colleges adequate to admit the increasing number of students?

2. Do you think we should have more number of universities?

3. What is the increase noticed among the teachers in the year 1998-99?

4. What is your idea about future colleges and universities?

Study the table and answer the following questions

Health infrastructure over the years

SC: Sub Centre, PHC: Primary Health Centre, CHC: Community Health Centre. Source: National Health Policy

1. What is the percentage increase in dispensaries and hospitals from 2010 to 2013?

2. What is the percentage increase in doctors and nursing personnel from 2010 to 2013?

3. Do you think the increase in the number of doctors and nurses is adequate for India? If not, why?

4. What other facilities would you like to provide in a hospital?

5. Discuss about the hospital you have visited.

What do you understand by "people as a resource'?

How is human resource different from other resources like, land and physical capital?

What is the role of education in human capital formation?

What is the role of health in human capital formation?

What part does health play in the individual's working life?

What are the various activities undertaken in the primary sector, secondary sector and the tertiary sector?

What is the difference between economic activities and non-economic activities?

Why are women employed in low paid work?

How will you explain the term unemployment?

What is difference between disguised unemployment and seasonal unemployment?

Why is educated unemployed a peculiar problem in India?

In which field do you think India can build the maximum employment opportunity?

Can you suggest some measures in the education system to mitigate the problem of educated unemployed?

Can you imagine some villages which initially had no job opportunities but later on came up with many?

Which capital would you consider the best-land, labour, physical capital and human capital? Why?

Visit a nearby village or slum area and write down a case study of a boy or girl of your age facing the same condition as Vilas and Sakal.

Visit a village or colony located near to your residential area and note down the various activities undertaken by the people of that village or colony.

If this is not possible, ask your neighbor what is their profession? In which of the three sectors will you categories their work?

Say whether these activities are economic or non-economic activities.

- Vilas sells the fish in the village market.

- Vilas cooks food for his family.

- Sakal works in the private firm.

- Sakal looks after his younger brother and sister.

Count the number of boys and girls studying in your school in your neighboring coeducation school.

Ask the school administration to provide you with the data of boys and girls studying in your class below 5 years and 10 years. Study the difference any and explain it in the class.

Visit a nearby hospital, either government or private and note-down the following details:

(i) How many beds are there in the hospital you have visited?

(ii) How many doctors are there in the hospital?

(iii) How many nurses work in that hospital?

Besides try to gather the following additional information:

(iv) How many hospitals are there in your locality?

(v) How many dispensaries are there in your locality?